Caravan Craft opens store in Pune

04 Apr '14

3 min read

Caravan Craft Retail Private Limited (CCRPL) is a single brand retail venture committed to the revival and promotion of Indian craft and to providing meaningful livelihood to the country’s artisans. Caravan has opened its first store in Maharashtra at Phoenix Market City, Pune. This is the company’s second store. The first in Bangalore, Karnataka, has received overwhelming response from customers.

Spread over 2800 sq ft, the store offers an eclectic range of handcrafted products designed to suit the sensibilities of Pune’s fashion conscience customer. Caravan had made a conscious and evident effort to marry contemporary needs of a modern discerning customer with the rich heritage of Indian craft. This is reminiscent of products seen in France and Japan, where craft skills combine aesthetically with neo-functional products.

The products in segments ranging from apparel to home décor to jewellery, toys and gifts, are a unique fusion of contemporary functional design and traditional craft forms.

The Apparel collection is elegant and sophisticated with colour palettes and silhouettes aligned to international trends. The contemporary designs and cuts are blended with authentic crafts such as Applique, Jamdani and Kalamkari to create chic women wear in fine hand-woven muslin and cotton that give the clothing lines a sensuous feel.

The Home segment has cheerful and bright-coloured cushion covers, curtains, tablemats and runners embellished with craftwork like Zardozi, hand embroidery and block printing.

An exquisite Limited Edition jewellery collection fusing Dhokra with silver and cubic zirconia (CZ) embodies one of the finest demonstrations of Indian craftsmanship. The edition is perfectly complemented by everyday-wear Bidri, Thewa and Filigree pieces.

The fusion of technology with craft is an interesting direction the brand has taken. USB memory sticks and digital photo frames with Bidri silver inlay are breathtaking. In fact, the USB sticks with Bidri motifs were a huge hit in Bangalore, where the company sold six months of inventory in the first month!!

Caravan Craft Retail Private Limited has been funded by NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) and Unitus Seed Fund.

Dilip Chenoy, Managing Director & CEO, NSDC, says “While NSDC spearheads the nation’s Skilling Mission with a target of 150 million pairs of skilled hands to be added by 2022 which will include artisans, it is the demand for skilled Indians generated by businesses like Caravan that makes the new skills ecosystem economically viable and productive in the long run. NSDC, for its part, will continue to study the skill gap in the country and develop its network of training partners who will manage the supply side for skilled manpower at every level.”

Caravan is led by Kunal R Sachdev (MD & CEO), who has considerable experience in marketing, retail and operations management. He has held senior management and leadership roles at ITC and Hidesign where he was instrumental in building both the brand and the business.

Caravan Craft

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